Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 181

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#181

“Surprised by ginseng? Half the things here are worth more than ginseng.”
At those words, Dan Jeong-cheol examined the plants once more. His trembling hand plucked a leaf from what he recognized—Thousand-Year-Old Fleece Flower Root.
“This… this is really for the dogs?”
Even as mere leaves, Thousand-Year-Old Fleece Flower Root was Spirit Medicine among Spirit Medicines—worth ten times what ginseng was.
“Yes. They seem to have a strange fondness for the bitter taste. Peculiar palate, those ones.”
“So everything piled here is Spirit Medicine like ginseng?”
“The truly precious items—the scraps humans discard—I give to the dogs.”
Saliva gathered unbidden in his throat. Watching him, Jeon Mi-ryeo asked.
“Why? Do you want some?”
“Yes.”
The honest answer escaped before he could catch it, and he waved his hands frantically.
“No, no! How could I possibly eat dog food? It’s absurd!”
Though the real absurdity was giving such medicine to dogs. Then again, having grown on this diet, they’d become something far more than ordinary dogs.
‘I want to eat it!’
He suspected that eating dog feed consistently would increase his Internal Power steadily. But no matter how hungry he was for Martial Arts advancement, he couldn’t bring himself to eat dog food.
“The dogs eat twice a day—morning and evening. They need daily baths, since the Lords hate the smell on them. In the afternoon they’ll all be outside, so you’ll have free time.”
Having said this much, Jeon Mi-ryeo whistled. Immediately five dogs appeared, bounding over the walls from various directions.
All of them wagged their tails at Jeon Mi-ryeo, but each time Dan Jeong-cheol saw them, his spine prickled.
‘At this rate I’ll turn into a porcupine.’
The dogs buried their snouts in their feed troughs and ate with gusto. Somewhere, a rooster crowed.
With these relentless dogs about, his mornings would be restless from now on.
Jeon Mi-ryeo, having left a reminder not to forget to wash the feed troughs, disappeared to prepare breakfast.
The moment she vanished, all five dogs stopped eating and one by one turned their gaze on Dan Jeong-cheol. Their habitually wagging tails stiffened.
Though he couldn’t understand the language of dogs, the gesture resembled a judgment—friend or foe.
Dan Jeong-cheol forced a smile.
“I’m… I’m not your enemy. Ha-ha-ha!”
But his laughter didn’t budge their expressions. As the dogs stared intently, fear crept up on him.
He wondered if they might bare their fangs and charge him.
Even five tigers wouldn’t frighten Dan Jeong-cheol, but he had no doubt they’d feel equally unafraid of him.
He regretted not bringing a sword.
‘An Imperial Guard Officer cowering before mere dogs!’
Dan Jeong-cheol tightened his lower abdomen and fixed his gaze with deliberate intensity.
“What are you looking at? Eat your food!”
Grrrrrr…….
“Ah, no—I meant eat your medicine and strengthen your body. Go on, eat. Eat.”
Whether because Dan Jeong-cheol had softened his tone or the dogs simply lost interest, they lowered their snouts back to the troughs.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the dogs finished their meal without fuss and disappeared over the wall. It felt less like keeping pets and more like wild beasts dropping by the house for a quick meal.
They’d cleaned the troughs so thoroughly there seemed no need to wash them, but since he had a duty to perform, Dan Jeong-cheol stacked them neatly and headed toward the well.
There he encountered Bae Do-gyeong, a subordinate Guard Officer, who was rinsing vegetables while blowing warmth onto his hands in the cold water.
“The weather’s turned quite cold, hasn’t it, chief?”
“That it has.”
Their eyes met with a flicker of shared sympathy. Soon after, Gwang Pan-do, who worked at the smithy, joined them.
“Up early, are you?”
“Yes. I have to work the bellows. And you seem busy from dawn yourself, chief.”
Gwang Pan-do was washing his face and drawing water when another figure appeared.
It was Gyeon Su-ryang, a Guard Officer returning from the night shift at Oseong Pavilion. His exhausted frame moved as though his legs weighed a thousand pounds.
“What happened at the pavilion overnight?” Dan Jeong-cheol asked.
At his question, Gyeon Su-ryang released a deep sigh.
“I never knew taverns had so many troublesome customers. One of them threw up on me—I changed clothes twice.”
In truth, Gyeon Su-ryang had been the most envied among the Guard Officers. Working alongside beautiful courtesans—everyone had thought, ‘I should’ve requested the pavilion.’
But after watching Gyeon Su-ryang for just one day of duty, that envy had evaporated.
‘Oseong Jang-won is better after all.’
One man washed to begin his day; another, to cleanse away his exhaustion. Dan Jeong-cheol scrubbed feed troughs while Bae Do-gyeong warmed his numb hands as he rinsed vegetables.
They were among the most promising Guard Officers in the Imperial Guard.
“I know you’re not happy about what we’re doing here.”
Dan Jeong-cheol’s expression was resolute as he spoke.
“But this place is a battlefield where the enemy could strike at any moment. On a battlefield, we cannot afford to pick and choose our duties. What is the most important task of the Imperial Guard?”
“The protection of His Majesty and the Imperial Family, sir.”
“That is precisely what we are doing now.”
Dan Jeong-cheol continued speaking as he scrubbed the feed trough with diligence.
“So each of you must do your utmost in your assigned roles.”
“We understand, sir.”
Having steadied his subordinates, Dan Jeong-cheol carried the cleaned feed trough to the warehouse.
When he opened the door, he saw piles of Spirit Medicine stacked high within.
“Using something like this for dog feed…”
The more he thought about it, the more wasteful it seemed. Yet he could not bring himself to eat what had been designated as dog food.
That was the terrible power of a name. The substance was unchanged, yet a name could transform everything about it.
As Jeon Mi-ryeo had said, the hours after dawn were leisurely. After catching up on his lack of sleep, Dan Jeong-cheol stepped into the rear courtyard to find five people engaged in Cultivation Practice.
The most striking figure among them was Geom U-bin.
Go Seo-bang, O Tong-su, Se-hwa, Jeon Mi-ryeo, and an unfamiliar middle-aged man whose name Dan Jeong-cheol did not know moved with the swift, powerful forms of traditional training.
Simply watching them practice, one could tell that Go Seo-bang, O Tong-su, and Se-hwa were unmistakably experts—far beyond Dan Jeong-cheol’s own level.
He reserved judgment about Jeon Mi-ryeo, though the nameless middle-aged man seemed somewhat clumsy.
And Geom U-bin moved with tedious slowness—so gradually that a fly could land upon his fist and take a nap before his arm extended fully.
Certainly, there were forms of Cultivation Practice that employed deliberate slowness. But that method was for beginners first learning Martial Arts.
Practicing slowly was an excellent way to master the Fist Path and Sword Path with precision.
However, Geom U-bin had long since transcended the realm of slow practice. So to Dan Jeong-cheol’s eye, his movements could only seem strange.
“You there—do you not know that spying on another’s practice is forbidden in Murim?”
The voice from directly behind him made Dan Jeong-cheol’s heart flutter in his chest like a fish thrashing in water. He was proud of himself for not screaming.
“Y-you’re the Lord Yeon.”
Yeon Geum-hong stood before him with that characteristically cold expression.
“I apologize. I was walking without thinking and ended up here by chance…”
Yeon Geum-hong cut off his excuse.
“That may be the rule in Murim, but not at Oseong Jang-won.”
“Pardon?”
“If there is something to learn, then learn it. Though I doubt someone as weak as you could benefit at all.”
Because the one speaking so dismissively was Yeon Geum-hong herself, he could not bring himself to be angry. Though her constant rudeness did grate on him.
She appeared to be roughly his own age, so he gathered his courage and asked.
“You keep calling me ‘you there,’ but how old are you, miss?”
“A hundred.”
“Surely you jest.”
“You there.”
“Yes?”
He despised himself for answering so readily at the sound of that address.
“Stop fooling around and get serious about feeding the dog.”
The overwhelming pressure emanating from her left him with no choice but to hold his tongue.
“Seo-bang, your posture is too high!”
Watching her scold Go Seo-bang made it seem as if she truly was very old indeed.
“You’re quite at leisure, aren’t you?”
At the sound of the voice from behind, Dan Jeong-cheol turned and quickly bowed his waist.
“I pay my respects to the Princess.”
Go Shin-ji was the primary reason he was here, yet he had not thought of her even once all day.
“If you have time to spare, why not join us over there for some Martial Arts training?”
“No, I… I must attend to my duties.”
“You’ve already fed the dog, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ve completed your mission.”
Dan Jeong-cheol’s face fell.
“Your Highness…”
“Hehe! I’m only joking. Don’t worry. So long as you remain here, no one can harm me.”
Though he had only been at Oseong Jang-won for a single day, it already felt safer than the Imperial Palace itself.
“May I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
“How old exactly is that Yeon over there?”
“I’d wager around a hundred or so.”
“Is it possible that everyone at Oseong Jang-won has conspired to mock me?”
“I didn’t believe it at first either, but after a while, it just became natural to accept. Even the guard officer will come to believe it too.”
Yeon Geum-hong herself had said she was a hundred years old, and even Go Shin-ji had testified that her words were true.
‘A hundred years old? With that face?’
As Dan Jeong-cheol turned away, he caught himself thinking, ‘Well, it’s Oseong Jang-won, after all.’
Whatever else might be true, Dan Jeong-cheol had a sharp mind for learning. With nothing better to do, he decided to give the dogs a bath and set out to find them.
Of course, he couldn’t find them in the house, so he asked one of the workers.
“You might find them down by the river.”
Following that advice, he made his way to the river. The worker’s words proved accurate—he soon spotted five dogs.
They were gathered on a soft stretch of sand where the river curved gracefully.
“Come on, you lot! Time for a bath!”
The words came out naturally, as if the dogs could understand him.
But then all five dogs suddenly lunged at one another.
Whether they were fighting or playing, Dan Jeong-cheol couldn’t tell—but he couldn’t get close enough to find out.
One dog leaped a full zhang into the air, its neck seized and hurled, and went flying five zhang away.
The sandbank where the dogs were rampaging looked like a storm was raging across it. Sand flew so far that it reached Dan Jeong-cheol standing twenty zhang away—testimony to the ferocity and power of these creatures.
They weren’t even divided into sides. They bit and threw, collided, and even raked at one another with their front paws like tigers.
It bore no resemblance to an ordinary dog fight, neither in force nor appearance. They kept falling into the river and rolling in the sand, until they were shockingly filthy.
“B-bathing them is going to be difficult…….”
The fight was too fierce to even attempt stopping them. If he tried to break it up, he had no confidence he’d survive getting caught in that melee.
“There they go, playing around again.”
So absorbed in watching the dogs, he hadn’t noticed someone approaching. When Dan Jeong-cheol turned his head, he saw a middle-aged man—the only person here whose identity he didn’t know—shaking his head in disapproval.
“Might I ask who you are, sir?”
“Me? I’m Kang Chan-sik, and I oversee the Oseong Merchant Association—a triad based in Hangju.”
“Ah! A triad lord, then…… A triad meaning street gangsters…… Though of course that can’t be right…….”
“That’s exactly what it is.”
“A triad lord comes to Oseong Jang-won to practice martial arts?”
“Well, circumstances brought me here. And you’re an Imperial Guard sent to protect Madam Go, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“That’s far above the station of someone like us street gangsters.”
It was true. The moment the triads saw even the hem of an Imperial Guard’s yellow robe, they should tuck tail and flee.
And yet Kang Chan-sik carried himself differently simply by virtue of coming and going from Oseong Jang-won.
“You’re no ordinary triad lord yourself, are you?”
“When you carry the name of Oseong Jang-won, if you act like a common gangster, you get beaten to death.”
Without needing to say much more, Dan Jeong-cheol could sense there was something exceptional about him.
“By the way, I hear you’ve taken charge of raising the dogs?”
“Yes. I’m supposed to bathe them now, but…….”
Dan Jeong-cheol heaved a long sigh as he watched the tangled mass of dogs.
“Let me help you with that.”
Kang Chan-sik brought two fingers to his lips and whistled. At the sharp, long note, the dogs stopped dead in their tracks and perked up their ears.
“You lot! Time to get washed!”
They couldn’t possibly have understood his words. No matter how spirited these dogs were, the idea that they could comprehend human speech didn’t make sense.
Yet the dogs bounded toward him anyway, likely because he’d raised his arms and gestured.
“Whoa! Easy, you brutes! Don’t pile on me like that—you’re gonna crush me to death!”
With the dogs colliding against his entire body, Kang Chan-sik led them back toward Oseong Jang-won.
“You’re quite good with dogs.”
“It’s not so much handling them as getting to know them.”
“How do you do that?”
It seemed to him they’d never be friends with these five dogs at this rate.
“It’s like dealing with people. Once they know you care for them, dogs will care for you too.”
Dan Jeong-cheol’s expression twisted as he looked at the massive creatures.
“I’m not sure they’ll ever like me.”
“Don’t judge by appearance alone. Have you ever seen anyone at Oseong Jang-won who dislikes these dogs?”
Now that he thought about it, everyone adored all five dogs, and the dogs were loyal to every person here.
“In time, you’ll see just how clever and lovable these dogs truly are.”
When Kang Chan-sik bounded toward the river shouting “Let’s go get washed!”, all five dogs barked and chased after him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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